The Auntie Sewing Squad Resistance Playbook

Official Selection, 2026 CAAMFest
Official Selection, 2026 Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival

In Valerie Soe’s latest documentary, the Auntie Sewing Squad is the real-life Justice League. Following the COVID-19 shutdown, what began as a Facebook plea for homemade face masks became a bat signal (or a Hello Kitty call-out) to fill the needs of the most at-risk, catalyzing a band of unlikely heroes known as the Auntie Sewing Squad.

Chronicling the events from their origins in December 2019 to their dissolution in August 2021, THE AUNTIE SEWING SQUAD RESISTANCE PLAYBOOK highlights how a simple act of care activated a scrappy collective of artists, performers, professors, students, and laymen building mutual aid. With snippets of Facebook posts, Zoom recordings, overlord(s) and aunties, Soe (Love Boat Taiwan, SDAFF ‘19) portrays how an organic community came together with one underlying goal: delivering necessary support that the government failed to provide.

In a timeline where systemic inequities are set ablaze, humor and sincerity are used to discuss racism, labor, and classism. THE AUNTIE SEWING SQUAD RESISTANCE PLAYBOOK reminds us that it only takes one stitch to resist hopelessness and re-envision a just and equitable future.

– Alissa Tu

Preceded By

Yu & Me

Directed by Claudine Cho, Esther Chan

When a fire destroys a beloved Chinatown bookstore, its hyper-independent owner learns that community is necessary for survival.